Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Springtime in the City : Tulip Watch - week 4

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
Our patience will soon be paid off and by the looks of it we won't be disappointed.
Just in case you randomly tuned, this is the forth consecutive week that I take pictures of a specific patch of tulips growing in the front gardens of Montreal's Botanical Gardens. I'm basically monitoring their growth. I've also added some manifestations of Spring's arrival in Montreal and you are in for a treat this week! You can see the previous posts by clicking on the following links:

Although it was nice and sunny today, it was terribly windy which made taking pictures just that much harder. I'm no photographer so it took longer than usual, but then again, I also got to take pictures of some new spring players. Before we get there, let's look at our tulips.

They are growing nicely and showing signs of fabulous flowers to come. Besides the obvious upcoming flowers, a pattern of maturation caught my eye. I noticed, that the tulips with the most advance flowers grew near the edge of the patch. This correlates with these areas being the first to be freed of snow, so they got a head start. What was even more interesting is that the number of plants showing signs of imminent flowering varied significantly from patch to patch. To better understand, you need visual support. Here is what the front gardens look like.

For Spring, each garden from the front gate all the way up to the main building are filled to the brim with tulips - many different varieties. Our tulips are located in the garden surrounding the black lamp post you see in the distance on the right.

So, as I was saying, the gardens have different growth speeds, there is a measurable (or at the very least visible) gradation between the furthest from the main building and the nearest.
The gardens furthest away from the main building are about the size of our tulips last week, the gardens just before ours has considerably less visible flower buds, and the tulips nearest to the building are flowering.

I love how amongst all the pink tulips, there is this random pink edges peach one. I thought it really stood out against the others, that is, until I turned the corner and saw this :

A bright red, floppy petaled tulip. Now that is something different. I was quite entertaining to watch the bright coloured petals flop around in the wind.

With our tulips popping out, I think it's time I tell you more about tulips. I'll save it for next week though as I have still more pictures to share with you today. I'll try and get a hold of the person responsible for the tulips at the gardens and ask loads of questions.

Up next are two trees that produce very different spring flowers.

The Red Maple and the Magnolia.

Seeing as it is getting late, I'll save a more elaborate description of these fabulous trees for tomorrow. I've also saved some pretty pictures for you as well so tune in tomorrow.